SBU Ranks High in US News & World Report’s 2018 Best Colleges

Stony Brook University is once again ranked within the top 100 among US colleges and universities (#97) and ranks as #41 among public universities according to the U.S. News & World Report’s 2018 Best Colleges. Stony Brook also fared much better than expected in the category of 6-year graduation rate by achieving a 72 percent graduation rate vs. the expected rate of 69 percent.

FAR BEYOND theme inspired Stony Brook students.

“While these new data are reason for optimism, Stony Brook has become a world-class institution not by managing toward rankings but rather by managing toward mission — exemplary academics, cutting-edge research, state-of-the-art health care, economic vibrancy, and celebrating diversity,” said Stony Brook University President Samuel L. Stanley Jr. “Where rankings align with the mission to achieve outcomes, they can be a valuable tool.”

Dr. Stanley is referring to a recent mobility study led by the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. Entitled Mobility Report Cards: The Role of Colleges in Intergenerational Mobility, the report ranks Stony Brook among the top 10 colleges and universities in the nation whose students begin college at the bottom fifth of income distribution and then go on to have income in the top three-fifths of income distribution. In that report published by Raj Chetty and colleagues at Stanford, using de-identified tax records, Stony Brook was #3 among all institutions and #1 among highly selective institutions in mobility rate – moving students from families in the lowest 20 percent of income to the top 20 percent of income after they graduate.

“Moving the needle on these rankings takes a unified effort among many across campus, from our academic advisors and the innovative programs they have been implementing to help our students, to our Career Center, and to our programs and majors offering the right classes at the right time,” said President Stanley. “It’s great to see the needle moving; I think we will continue to see more of this over the next several years.”